Heather Southcott

Heather Joyce Southcott, AM (15 November 1928 – 21 November 2014) was an Australian politician, representing the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Mitcham (now Waite) for the Australian Democrats. She was the first woman to lead a parliamentary political party in Australia.

Southcott was born Heather Joyce Miller in Adelaide, a daughter of Gavin Robert Miller and Ivy Ilean Miller, née Twelftree (married 1917). She graduated with a pharmacy degree from the University of Adelaide. She initially worked at the Adelaide Repatriation Hospital; however, following her marriage in 1952 (to Ronald Vernon Southcott ) she was obliged to resign from the public service and she subsequently continued her career in private retail pharmacy work. She was a co-founder of the Women Pharmacists Group and was involved in numerous organisations, including the National Council of Women, Women's Electoral Lobby and the Electoral Reform Society. then the Democrats' sole House of Assembly MP and state leader. She was defeated by Liberal candidate Stephen Baker, at the state election six months later.

During her six months in parliament, she served as the party's state parliamentary leader, which would make her the first woman to lead an Australian parliamentary political party;

After leaving parliamentary politics, she was a long-serving National President of the Democrats. She was the great-aunt of Liberal Party parliamentarian Andrew Southcott.